Parents watch their kids work so hard at practice and want them to reap the benefits by swimming great at meets. However, swimmers will have good meets and not-so-good meets. Even though best times are the focus (rather than what place you take), no swimmers get best times every time they swim. It's great for parents and swimmers to learn their best times and it's important for parents to stay positive and encouraging even when their kids do not match or improve on a best time. Sometimes they'll be much slower than their best times and other times they'll cut time off. This is to be expected - try not to get disappointed or frustrated with your kids. Coaches will give them ideas about ways to improve and they'll work on these improvements at practice. The most important thing is that the swimmers are having fun!